HC allows 31 students to give CET despite wasting seats last year

Mumbai, Jan 16 (UNI) The Bombay High Court today allowed 31 students to appear for the Common Entrance Test (CET) scheduled for January 21 despite not taking admissions last year when given a seat with course of their choice in the college they had selected.

A division bench comprising Acting Chief Justice H L Gokhale and Justice V M Kanade while admitting the petition filed by three of these students held that the decision regarding whether they should be admitted in any of the colleges would be decided after finally hearing the parties in February.

Associate Advocate General Ashutosh Kumbhakoni, however, opposed the petition seeking permission to give the CET after the Directorate of Medical Education and Research (DMER) declared them ineligible for the entrance test for two years.

He contended before the judges that last year 88 seats had remained vacant due to such students who were allotted seats but either they did not take admission or later cancelled their admission. As the cut off date for the admissions was June 30, the students on the waiting list also lost the opportunity and the seats were wasted.

''In fact, it is a national loss of such valuable seats as they will remain vacant for three years till last year's batch graduates,'' he told reporters later.

The process of allotment of seats will begin from March and whether these students will be given a seat will be decided by the court before that, he added.

There are a total of 950 seats across the state for PG courses in the government colleges.

UNI